Zak Brown says he would rather lose to Max Verstappen than favour either of his drivers in the 2025 championship. Image: XPB Images
Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Brown made clear that McLaren will not resort to team orders in the closing stages of the season, even with just one point separating Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri heading into the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
“I shake his hand and say, job well done,” Brown said when asked what his reaction would be if Verstappen ultimately beat McLaren to the title.
“I want to make sure if we don’t win, he beats us. We don’t beat ourselves. That’s important. We’re well aware of 2007. Two drivers tie on points, one gets in the front.
“But you know, we’ve got two drivers who want to win the world championship. We’re playing offence. We’re not playing defence.
“And I’d rather go, we did the best we can on our drivers tied in points and the other beat us by one, than the alternative which is telling one of our drivers right now, when they’re one point away from each other, ‘I know you have a dream to win the world championship but we flipped the coin and you don’t get to do it this year’.
“Forget it. That’s not how we go racing. In the event that 2007 happens again, I’d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won’t do it.”
McLaren heads into the final four rounds leading both championships, but Verstappen’s recent resurgence has cut deeply into its advantage.
Brown and team principal Andrea Stella have consistently said the team will not impose team orders while both drivers remain in contention.
Earlier this year, Brown told The Race that McLaren was fully aware of the risks in giving Norris and Piastri equal freedom to fight — a scenario reminiscent of the infamous 2007 Hamilton–Alonso rivalry, when both drivers lost the championship to Kimi Raikkonen by a single point in the final round.
“We recognise the consequences of that could be 2007,” he said.
Brown warns McLaren title fight could echo 2007 drama
“You’ve got two drivers that tie and lose to Kimi by a point. We could have won that drivers’ championship, but who do you pick? And then you run the risk of the guy you don’t pick, he’s out of here.”
He added that there is “nothing in their contract that gives one priority over the other” and warned that the downside of favouring one would likely be “one then wants to leave, which is exactly what happened at the end of ’07 [anyway].”
For Stella, maintaining equal treatment is central to McLaren’s philosophy — and essential to keeping harmony inside the garage.
“If Max is the champion at the end of the year, for us, the important thing is that we can say we have done our best and we have done our best according to the way we go racing,” he said on the podcast.
“And if Max wins this year, we say we’re going to win next year, we’re going to be there and we are going to be united as we are.”
He also rejected any notion that the team might privately lean toward one driver.
“So when you are in my role, it’s like when you have two sons and somebody says, ‘Which one is your preferred son?’ Yeah, but they are my two sons, how can you say which one is the preferred one?” Stella said.
“Sometimes when I hear or read some comments of this kind, I find them really very superficial and just like, I think sometimes people don’t really understand what it means to have two drivers that are with you together in this journey in Formula 1.
“I just feel very grateful to both, in fairness.”